FORD OUTDOORS: Experience is still the best teacher when it comes to fishing

There was a time when there was no substitute for experience when it came to fishing.

The vast array of electronics available today were still the stuff of science fiction and the rest of our equipment choices were pretty rudimentary.

Not anymore.

You can pinpoint spots in the middle of lakes within an arm's length using a GPS and figure out the species, depth and activity of fish on a high-definition screen.

But in so many ways there's still no substitute for experience in fishing.

An angler can read articles and books about plastic worm fishing, watch the best In-Fisherman videos or TV shows and attend seminars presented by the sport's best bass fishermen.

You can know every technique and use the absolute best tackle and sharpest hooks to present your offering. Somewhere there's probably even a fish bite simulator to give you a semblance of how it feels.

Only it could never quite replicate the real thing as the only way to know how a bite feels on a plastic worm, a subtle "tap-tap", is to feel it in your own hands.

Then you have to learn how to react and when, and the only way is by doing, mixing the misses with the hookups until you get it right. Even then you'll never be 100 percent.

Nobody is. It's fishing.

The same thing goes for a favorite fishing hole. Take Scales Lake in Boonville.

I first went there about 50 years ago, taken by my grandfather (Wilfred McDowell) to basically shut me up. We didn't catch much, if anything, but I could see fish in the gin clear water.

Six or eight years later I went back with a friend, got out in a boat, and learned more. I discovered both spots and techniques that produced fish, some of which I use to this day.

Subsequent trips in rental boats and then my own canoe or the boats of friends kept building a storehouse of knowledge that now includes drops, roadbeds and other structure and seasonal preferences, like swimming a jig over the sandy bottom of the swimming area in March.

What that means is I can return to Scales, even after a few years away, and have a few pretty good ideas about where to fish and how for bass, bluegill, redear and crappie, depending on the season. I will catch fish. I know that. The only questions are how many and how big?

The same can be said for friends who frequent much bigger waters like Barkley and Kentucky lakes just like they have for 40 and 50 years. They catch fish consistently because decades of trial and error have narrowed their choices and variables to some with a high probability of success.

It's this very reason that even the best bass pros will hire guides on unfamiliar lakes because there's no substitute for local knowledge. It's also a great way for a novice to get some hands-on instruction.

But even though electronics, information and gear have cut down on the learning curve from my youth, there's still one thing that will never change. The only way you really improve is to play cards.